A cobbler can help you save your favourite shoes and boots

Sandra Phillips

April, 2011

Happily, you are probably packing away your winter boots and shoes, but at the same time you are noticing whether you can wear them again or will have to buy new ones. Some of them are worn out, but there might not be money in your budget to buy new ones to replace them—what can you do?

In our throwaway society, we have forgotten about the neighbourhood shoe repairman—and the other repairmen as well. If you don’t want to polish and winterize those boots and shoes yourself, they can do it for you and fix heels and soles. But they can do so much more.

At Carinthia, right downtown, or Cordonnerie Benny in Kirkland and N.D.G. and Cordonnerie Argentino in Verdun, the shoe fairies can add zippers, leather ankle supports, and elastic to footwear for wide calves or tighten boots. Shoe repairmen can even cut down high heels. And they can fill prescriptions for orthopedic adjustments.

These people can, with their golden hands, fix luggage and dye shoes and sometimes repair tears in leather jackets.

Going out and getting physical this spring? Carinthia can fix heels and soles on rock-climbing, hiking and sports footwear or change Rockport soles; Cordonnerie Argentino, with 50 years experience, does expert repairs on hockey and baseball equipment, including reinforcing eyelets, reconditioning or repalming gloves and sharpening skates. If you’re going this way, he also sells shoes, belts, purses and schoolbags.

If you would prefer to polish your shoes yourself or buy your own shoe inserts, head to Astro, a supplier to the shoemakers. Want to buy shoe trees, a silver plated shoe horn or Tarrago self shine shoe cream in seven colours? Ever think of buffing up your couch or jacket—Avel comes in 21 colours.

Environmentally friendly cleaners, polishes and protectors are here, along with Nano Tech weather protectors and Solon polymer gel release pads for diabetics.

And they also sell the Pedag line of insoles, which take up an entire wall of breathable ones, leather ones, carbon-filtered, lambswool, silver ones and on and on ...

Carinthia 1228 St. Marc 514-935-8475

Cordonnerie Benny 6560 Sherbrooke W. 514-481-6179 and St. Charles Blvd. in Kirkland, 514-694-8626

Cordonnerie Argentino 5027 Wellington, 514-769-1377

Astro 505 Montpellier, 514-273-6345 solonfootcare.com